India wants Sino-Pak N-deal to meet intl safeguards

Notwithstanding the diplomatic reservations expressed by it, India appears reconciled to the fact that Pakistan will ultimately get two additional nuclear reactors from China for its Chashma facility but it only wants the agreement to be transparent and under international safeguards.

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PTI

Toronto

June 26, 2010

UPDATED: June 26, 2010 21:46 IST

Notwithstanding the diplomatic reservations expressed by it, India appears reconciled to the fact that Pakistan will ultimately get two additional nuclear reactors from China for its Chashma facility but it only wants the agreement to be transparent and under international safeguards.

New Delhi has conveyed to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) its concerns that there should be no dilution of the conditions India was subjected to when the NSG gave its exemption when the Indo-US civil nuclear deal went through.

Official sources said the NSG meeting in New Zealand on Friday does not not appear so far to have cleared the Sino-Pak nuclear deal.

"They have not taken any decision. It is still under consideration and discussion," the sources said referring to reports about the Chinese plans to set up two additional reactors in Chashma atomic project in Pakistan.

They welcomed the NSG's Christchurch statement that the Group took note of the briefings on developments concerning non-NSG states and that it agreed on the value of ongoing "consultation and transparency".

India feels that the Chinese may have "obviously presented" their case to the NSG on its proposal for Pakistan.

The Chinese maintain that the two additional reactors are also covered the earlier agreement "grandfathered" by them a few years ago.

India, which is not not a member of the NSG has made contacts with the group to express its concerns.

Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao had met the Ambassadors of the NSG troika in Delhi and the Indian Ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament in Vienna had also representatives of NSG countries there in this regard.

India's position is it is not not opposed to Pakistan's legitimate clamour for energy but it only wants the deal to be transparent.

"We have told the NSG members that there be no no dilution of conditions that India was subjected to (at time of 2008 exemption in NSG)," the sources said.

They said this was particularly so against the backdrop of reports in the of L'Quila declaration of G-8 countries enrichment technology transfer.

On the NSG statement that participating governments in the Christchurch meeting agreed to consider ways of strengthening guidelines dealing with the transfer of enrichment and reprocessing technologies, the sources said India cannot have any quarrel with that statement.

"It is a good statement," they said.

On the current round of Indo-Pak dialogue, India feels Pakistan seemed to be taking an approach different from what it was doing in February when its Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir was in India or in September when the Foreign Ministers met in New York after the Sharam-el-Sheikh declaration.

After Rao's discussions with Bashir, the Indian establishment is of the view that Pakistan was very keen on engaging with India and wants relations to progress.

"They are picking up our phraseology. We want to see how the process develops. The relationship was struggling to survive. For the first time we have got their attention. They are receptive to the ideas given to them," the sources said.

During the dialogue, Pakistan did raise the Kashmir issue but the Indian side reiterated its national position.

Pakistan did seem to understand the gravity of the Mumbai terror attack issue and promised that they were on with getting punishment for the accused in their courts.

The sources said India did not ask for handing over of the 20 terror elements living in Pakistan. It is not a simplistic issue but nuanced and complex issue that has no no black and white answers, the sources said.

The whole attempt, they said, was to bridge the trust deficit and this exercise was about building the right atmosphere in problems are sought to be solved in a transparent manner, they said.

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